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Sermon for Sunday, October 4, 2009

 “The Church: for the Homesick”

Acts 2:42-47

A novel by Anne Tyler tells of a man named Ezra who worked most of his life cooking for others at Scarlotti’s restaurant. Feeding people was his way of caring for them. One day Mrs. Scarlotti came to him and told him she was turning the restaurant over to him. Ezra tried various menus and formats and nothing seemed to catch on. Then one day an idea came to him.

He decided to cook what people felt homesick for—tacos like those from vendor’s carts in California which Mexican people were always pining for and that wonderful vinegar based North Carolina BBQ that one man brought his mother several times a year in cardboard cups. And then he decided that he would call the restaurant the Homesick Restaurant.

Hence the title of the novel -- “Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant.”

Do you ever get homesick for certain foods? I do. There is a restaurant downtown Richmond called “Comfort.” It prepares that food that tries to remind one of the food “mama” cooked (but not at mama’s prices).  Sometimes food is more than just food. It is a reminder of a place, a time, an experience. Some food just tastes like home.  What kind of food makes you homesick?

Do you remember your favorite meal growing up? I do. If it were possible for my grandmother Thompson to come back alive and do one thing for me, it would be to cook a meal. That meal would be fried chicken, butter beans, corn, potato salad, boiled okra, tomatoes, corn bread and sweet iced tea. That is the perfect meal. It may not be the healthiest meal, but it is the perfect meal.

What do you fix when your children come home? Food takes on a different meaning doesn’t it?  It is more than nourishment, is a reminder of warm, caring times; of acceptance and love.  Don’t you ever find yourself homesick some days for food that tastes like home?

There is a sense, I think, in which the table of our Lord is kind of a homesick restaurant. It is here we can find what we are most homesick for.  Sometimes we don’t even know we’re homesick until we get here and suddenly we know, “this is what I’ve been missing.”

The picture we get of the early church in Acts tells what people found when they met together to eat.  They learned how important it was to feed on God’s word. “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching.” In the confusion of our world and lives today, we need some clear word. We need a word from God. Jesus said, when tempted by Satan in the wilderness, “We human folk do not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” When we get ready to come to the Table, we are reminded all over again for the necessity of God’s word in our lives.

Next week we are going to present Bibles to our first graders. One of the messages we want to get across to them is the importance of reading the Bible and how the Bible is God’s guide book to life. We want them to know that when they read the menu in the Bible, they will find what they need from God: guidance, mercy, love, grace, redemption, hope and eternity.

The Word of God is what you find at the Homesick Restaurant that we call the Lord’s Table.

We are also homesick for one another. They also learned how important relationships are. God did not make us to be alone, but to be a part of the family that is His. The scripture says the “early church devoted itself to fellowship – to relationship. Understand it says “devoted” even in relationships you must give yourself to it. Very seldom do relationships just happen. You must be here when the family gathers; you must get to know each other and allow yourself to be known. And so they did, and the scripture says they shared food with glad and generous hearts. I don’t know about you, but I long for some grand family reunion where the only thing better than the food is the company.

The scripture is a beautiful description of the family of God at its best –“all who believed were together; had all things in common; distribute proceeds as any had need. And they broke bread and ate their food with glad and generous hearts.”

That’s one reason why people shop for church. They want to find a place to lay their homesick souls. Does that make sense? I don’t know about you, but as much as I love food I want to be in a place with people that is better than food. Loneliness is tough. One of the reasons I love Wednesday family nights so much and it really doesn’t make any difference what the food is…meatloaf, green peas and beets and I would still be there because of you. I am so naïve that I don’t understand why we all don’t want to be together.

What are you homesick for this morning? Acceptance – He really does accept you as you are because He knows what you can become. Mercy – yes, like you have never known before; Grace? Peace. It is all on the menu at the Lord’s Table.

It is at this table that we meet Jesus Christ. He becomes the one we are most homesick for because it is through Him, for Him and in Him that we are made. And so He meets you at his table and asks, “What can I give you?” It is around this table we can taste, glimpse, touch what home with Him might be. And maybe even find a cure for our homesickness.

He comes to us at the Table and asks, “What do you want today?” Some time we may look carefully because we wonder what it all cost because there are no prices at this table. You know you are in trouble when there are no printed prices on the menu.

He sees you and me and our anxiety and says, “Don’t worry. It’s on the house for you see there is no cost for us because it cost Him everything.

Contact Us

Address
First Baptist Church, Ashland
800 Thompson Street
Ashland, VA 23005

Phone
(804) 798-9014

Fax
(804) 798-9043

E-mail
fbcashland@verizon.net

Sunday Worship

  8:30 a.m. –  Worship Service
  9:45 a.m. –  Sunday School
11:00 a.m. –  Worship Service